Use of stun gun on boy stirs anger

6-year-old was cutting himself

MIAMI — Parents and community leaders expressed outrage that a Miami-Dade County police officer used a 50,000-volt stun gun to subdue a 6-year-old boy who was using a shard of glass to cut himself and hold a security officer at bay.

"I couldn't imagine why a police officer would use that kind of device on a child," said Marvin Dunn, a psychology professor at Florida International University who was formerly a principal at an alternative school. "I can restrain a 6-year-old with one hand. I don't get it."

The Oct. 20 incident occurred inside the principal's office at Kelsey Pharr Elementary School, police said. The unidentified child, who has a history of behavioral problems, was alone in the office with a school security officer.

Principal Maria Mason told police she heard glass breaking and rushed into her office, where the boy was bleeding and holding a piece of glass he had taken out of a picture frame he broke with his fist.

By the time school district and Miami-Dade police officers arrived, the boy had cut himself under his right eye, was bleeding from his left hand and was smearing blood over his face, according to police reports.

An officer then slid a trash can toward the boy and tried to persuade him to throw away the glass. The boy responded by tightening his grip on the glass, the reports said.

As officers kept trying to calm the boy, he began cutting his leg with the glass, police said. That's when Miami-Dade Officer Maria Abbott fired the stun gun. The probes hit the boy in the midsection of his torso and the bottom of his shirt.

"To further prevent the student from injuring himself, the officer felt she needed to deploy the stun gun," said Police Detective Randy Rossman.

As the child went into shock, officers grabbed him and took away the glass, police said. Paramedics checked the boy's injuries, and he was committed for psychiatric evaluation at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

The child's family has not filed a complaint, Rossman said.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools spokesman Joseph Garcia said the district is reviewing the incident.

Miami-Dade police policy prohibits the use of Tasers only on pregnant women. Before the officer used the stun gun on the boy, a Miami-Dade officer at the scene called a sergeant and verified that its use was within department policy.

Rossman said the department's administration was reviewing its Taser policy.

Dunn said there are methods of physically restraining children and dealing with emotionally disturbed children. Clearing the room and having only one person speaking calmly to the child could have been one option, he said.

"You simply escalate the situation when you bring more adults into the picture," Dunn said.

State Sen. Frederica Wilson, a former elementary school principal, said she dealt with many troubled children but never had to resort to a stun gun.

"You don't shoot a child with anything," she said. "That's crazy."

Wilson said the fact that no adult was able to restrain the child shows "a whole system of failure. If this is going to be an issue, they need to have more training. You can't be afraid of children."

Parents at Pharr Elementary were likewise outraged.

"I blame the police entirely," Carmen O'Neal said as she picked up her 1st grader. "They had no right to do that."